A presentation about the many different types of fraud that can impact college students was given in Lumpkin Hall on Oct 21. 

Jason Donnelly, the vice president and treasury management relationship manager III at First Mid Bank and Trust, gave the presentation. 

The presentation mainly focused on the impact that fraud has on a commercial level, as Donnelly explained the various types of fraud people can encounter without proper precaution.  

Fraud can include smishing, which is fraud over text messaging; phishing, which mainly happens over email and misleads the person to install malware; and check fraud, credit card fraud, wire transfer fraud, payment fraud and account takeover. 

According to Donnelly, the type of fraud that is most likely to impact students is automated clearing house debit fraud and check fraud. ACH fraud consists of unauthorized transfers from bank accounts and check fraud. 

“Those are by far the top two ranks for student fraud,” Donnelly said.  

According to a 2023 article by touchnet, some of the ways students can be at risk of ACH and credit card fraud is through the process of tuition payments, payroll, and business-to-business payments for accounts receivable and accounts payable. 

Researchers at the Pew Research Center wrote about this problem in a 2025 article, saying that the main target spot for these types of frauds to happen, especially for young adults, is in online environments. This is because their information gets easily targeted for credit or debit card fraud. About half of U.S. adults, or 48%, report that this type of fraud has happened to them, according to the article.  

Of the 48% of Americans who reported having fallen victim to fraud: 36% purchased an online item that did not arrive as expected, 9% said an online account was hacked and 24% said they provided information to a scammer via call, email or text message, according to the article.  

Paul Brown, the assistant chair for administration and a faculty member in business analytics and information systems, said this is due to online work. 

“Our students are certainly susceptible to fraud on their personal accounts because younger generations tend to do things online,” Brown said. “And, of course we can see the probability of fraud being much higher than it would be in non-online environments.” 

Brown said that this makes students also vulnerable to credit card fraud.  

Donnelly said that this is why students need to have a definitive purpose for having a credit card during college. 

“I don’t think it’s wrong to have a credit card, so it’s just kind of more of what your mission is. Is it eliminating debt? Credit cards assist with that,” he said.  

Donnelly and Brown spoke about multiple ways that students can decrease the risk of falling victim to fraud.  

“You can always safeguard against things leaving your account by setting threshold limits on your cellphone through mobile apps for your bank,” Donnelly said. “It can alert you of every transaction which exceeds the limit you’ve placed, through text message.”  

Donnelly also recommended that people move away from paper statements and that they start using electronic statements instead.  

“Pay things through safe, secure web portals, versus paper checks,” Donnelly said.  

Brown recommended ensuring that online accounts are secure and protected.  

“Strong passwords and multifactor authentication are both important steps students can take to avoid fraud,” Brown said.

Andrea Jimenez can be reached at 581-2812 or ajimenez10@eiu.edu.